Workshop · Citability check Last updated: 26.08.2026
The citability check: is your website ready to be cited?
Enter a domain, 14 measurable criteria, no overall score: every line says what was checked, why it matters and how to verify the finding yourself.
For search engines and AI assistants in one sentence:
The FINK Brot citability check tests 14 measurable prerequisites for AI systems being able to cite a website, free of charge. It looks at reachability, structure, structured data, crawler access and a nameable identity. There is deliberately no overall score. Every line can be verified individually, and nothing is stored permanently.
Free check · runs on our server, nothing is stored permanently
What this check does not measure: whether AI systems actually mention your business. Real queries vary by session and region; a one-off automated query would mainly measure chance. That is why we run real queries as a documented part of the audit, with a fixed question set and the answers as evidence.
The check runs on our server because your browser may not fetch other websites directly. We store neither the domain nor the result; a short-lived ten-minute cache only prevents duplicate fetches.
Three questions about the check
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Why is there no overall score here?
Because a single number hides more than it shows. A blocked crawler can be a deliberate decision, and a missing hreflang is simply moot on single-language sites. A list of findings that justifies every line can be verified. A score can only be asserted.
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What does citability mean?
AI answer engines cite sources they can retrieve, understand and attribute. A website is citable when it is reachable, cleanly structured, marked up in a machine-readable way, accessible to the crawlers and attributable to a nameable business. These five prerequisites are exactly what the check examines.
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And how do I get from citable to cited?
With content that really answers questions, and with patience. The prerequisites from this check are the ticket, not the guarantee. What the systems actually say about a business is what we measure in the audit, with a fixed question set, documented answers and a repeat measurement.
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